robbing the merchants, dealers, and the poor of their property. At this
period the _Fête des Fous_, or feast of madmen was celebrated to its
full extent, and anything more absurd, more farcical, or more
irreverential cannot well be imagined. Dulaure, in his voluminous
History of Paris, gives a most detailed account of this extraordinary
mockery, of which I will give my readers a very brief abridgment.

On the first of January the clergy went in procession to the bishop who
had been elected as the grand master of the fête, conducting him
solemnly to the church with all the ecclesiastical banners usually borne
on important occasions, amidst the ringing of bells; when arrived at the
choir, he was placed in the episcopal seat, and mass was performed with
the most extravagant gesticulations. The priests figuring away in the
most ridiculous dresses; some in the costume of buffoons, others in
female attire with their faces daubed with soot, or covered with hideous
masks, some dancing, others jumping, or playing different games,
drinking, and eating puddings, sausages, etc., offering them to the
high-priest whilst he was celebrating high mass; also burning old shoes
in the chalice, instead of incense, to produce a disagreeable scent; at
length, elevated by wine, their orgies began to have the appearance of
those of demons, roaring, howling, singing, and laughing until the walls
of the church echoed with their yells. This was often carried on until
they worked themselves up to a pitch of madness, and then they began
boxing each other until the floor of the church would be smeared with
blood; upon which most severe expiations were exacted from them; as,
however, much has been shed in the cause of the church, it was not to be
permitted that the holy sanctuary should ever be stained with aught so
impure. The ecclesiastics at last quitting the church, got into carts
filled with mud and filth, amusing themselves with flinging it upon the
crowds who followed them in such streets as were wide enough for a cart